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Runes Reforged: Picking your playstyle

By Fearless

This preseason, we're combining Runes and Masteries into one streamlined system that you can use to customize your playstyle. We've already given a high-level overview of the changes, but now we want to dig into some specifics by showing you examples of how you can select Runes from two Paths in the new system.

Before you ask, we’re still working on the details of how players will transition between the old and new systems, but don’t have anything new to share yet. Onward! To Runes Reforged.

Picking your Playstyle

When building out a page in the new Runes system, there are a number of decisions to consider. The largest decision will be your primary path, chosen from one of five options. The Paths are currently called Domination, Inspiration, Precision, Sorcery and Resolve but could definitely change.

Icons for Domination, Inspiration, Precision, Sorcery and Resolve

The path you choose will give you a number of slots you can set a rune into, and within each slot, you’ll have to choose between three or four runes that are unique to that path. The most powerful of these slots is called the Keystone Rune slot.

Slots in a primary path

Your primary path will also grant a small stat benefit that's meant to help differentiate how your champ feels and plays. For example, Precision might grant a small amount of Attack Speed.

Once you have your primary path selected, it’ll be time to pick a few Runes from a secondary path.

An example of a primary and secondary path together

From your secondary path, you get to choose two of any non-keystone slots, and then take one rune from within each slot. You’ll still need to select both of your secondary slots from a single path, so these aren’t entirely a grab bag.

These Runes help you set your own goals and define your own playstyle. Here are some rune options from the Resolve path that can be tapped into via your primary or secondary path:

Quick Reminder: We’re showing stuff that’s heavily WIP so expect some silly names, temporary values and funny looking icons that are VERY much subject to change!

Early Bird or Enduring Turtle? You might have a lane opponent you want to answer, whether to bully with a little more abandon, or survive a weak early match-up. Or maybe you’ve got the lane on lock and you want to spec for teamfights. These runes from the Resolve path let you choose one of the following:

Fortified Mind

Discipline

Sweet, Sweet Combos: While all of the Paths lend themselves to specific styles of play, sometimes you’ll find keystone and rune synergy off… the beaten path. Here’s an example:

Ruined King’s Tribute

Every 4 seconds in combat your next attack deals damage to nearby champions and large monsters equal to 3% of your max health and heals you for [20 -75]% of this amount based on level. Ranged Champions: Damage and healing are halved.

Maybe you’ve grabbed the Keystone Rune, Ruined King’s Tribute, when you have Resolve as your primary path. Now you’re looking to amplify this keystone’s effects.The Third Path in Inspiration is a great option:

The Third Path

+100 Health (permanently). -10% Damage to Champions until 10 minutes

Build-focused Runes: Alternatively, there are some ‘neutral’ Rune options you can take in your secondary path to augment your champion’s build or other playstyles, rather than your keystone. Check out the path of Inspiration again.

Maybe the combo you want is for our most well read champion and getting every item under the CDR tab. Yes, we still have you covered for that 45% CDR build.

Intelligence

Perhaps you’ve got that super powerful item spike, and you want to hit that breakpoint way ahead of your opponents. Or maybe you just want to be more flexible on your back timings.

Store Credit

You can enter debt to buy items. The amount you can borrow increases over time. Debt limit: 150 + 5/minute. Lending Fee: 50 gold per item.

These are just a few examples of why and how you can get the most out of your secondary paths. We’ll have a lot more examples coming soon.

Before we go, we wanted to answer a few questions here that we’ve seen cropping up:

We’ve seen plenty of folks worried about having enough base stats to make an off-meta build work, play their favorite champion in a particular role, or otherwise feel strong enough in the early game. We’ve been watching this issue for a large part of Runes Reforged development, and it's something we're confident we'll be able to address. We’ll talk about the world around Runes soon, but know that we've heard the concerns.

We’ve also seen a few questions about the new player experience. We’ll be talking a lot about this in the future, but we can assure you, every player, from level 1 to level 30 will have the same number of Runes in every game. More soon, but we wanted to at least throw that out.

Thanks for the read! We'll stick around in the comments to answer your questions.